Mid-Florida Air Conditioning Inc. / Service scam!

I was a customer of Mid-Florida Air Conditioning Inc. when I first bought my house. I bought a five year warranty with them. Every year I called them to do the yearly checkup on my air conditioning system (which is a Ruud) and they have been giving me service for four years.

A little while ago I talked to a friend which is a professional in air conditioners, refrigerators etc. and he told me that big companies like Mid-Florida don't give you the required cleaning in the yearly checkups that the air conditioner needs to last a long-time. I decided to tell him to give me the checkup the fifth year and to my surprise when he took out the evaporator, he said it looked like a twenty year old air conditioner (and Mid-Florida NEVER gave it acid cleaning which is required).

Fortunately I found this out early enough so it wouldn't cause problems with other parts, and my air conditioner is working in excellent condition know. The air conditioning companies want to charge you around five hundred dollars for acid treatments which is a basic cleaning that is needed, and he only charged me a hundred and twenty five dollars.

DO NOT TREAT YOUR AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS WITH BIG COMPANIES LIKE MID-FLORIDA. THEY WANT YOUR SYSTEM TO LAST AS LEAST POSSIBLE SO YOU CAN SPEND MORE MONEY IN BIG REPAIRS OR BUYING A NEW SYSTEM. WITH THE BASIC TREATMENT HE GAVE MY SYSTEM IT WILL LAST MORE THAN TWENTY YEARS. COMPARED TO ABOUT TEN YEARS TREATED WITH MID-AIR.

Comments

Allright! Lets get real now folks and without giving away the farm I'm going to tell you the real truth about this post.

First of all, you'll get no argument from me about the "service" that was not rendered for the five year agreement. What I will say is that as an average consumer you are all at the mercy of whoever you choose to beleive when you agree to let a service person into your home for a repair.

As far as the "Acid Wash" of the indoor evaporator coil being "Required" this is bull. It will probably lead to early failure of the coil if it was actually done with "Acid" as using your brain on this one, what happens when you spill acid onto any metal? It eats it!

What you really need is to change your filter four times a year, and don't let some Yahoo mess with you system unless he comes reccomended and qualified.

If it ain't broke, Don't fix it!

Sign me,

The "God" of Air-Conditioning Repair and Installation by virtue of my 37 years in the business.

A/C technicians use a non acidic solution to clean coils. During the preventive maintenance trips the techs do an in place cleaning and 95% of the time the coil surfaces are accessable for cleaning without pulling the coil assembly. Pulling the coil is not part of a standard preventive maintenance "tune up". I have been in the A/C field for 10 years and only had to pull coils 5 times for a PM but the cost to the customer ranges from $200-$500 depending on the Air handler and accessibility.
If the coil was in accessable the technician should have told you and if the coil was easily accessed but not cleaned you have every right to be upset!!!
The consequences of a impacted of severly dirty evaporator coil are badlt degraded efficiency and possible bent valves depending on the compressor type. The cheaper units use reciprocating compressors and the higher efficiency units use scroll compressors...the scrolls are real hard to mechanically destroy. Some companies preventive maintenance is just an evaluation and no cleaning and is not recommended. Mid Florida has a good reputation for customer service and is one of the better contractors around.
Avoid Ace Airconditioning like the plague because their company has a 95% turnover so you can figure it out. I work for neither company but in all fairness stick with Mid Florida.

I have been in this house for 4 years, and client of Mid-Florida in Gainesville Florida since. The first year I didn't call them. Everything was working perfect!!!. In July 2007 was their first visit and just to change the filters of our units. All that was working fine, all of the sudden didn't work anymore. In less then 3 years I have spent $7, 564 dollars. Between coil in all our units, compressors, condenser even vibrations on them, let us to one solution... NEW UNIT. After a huge bill and not even 3 months all, the condenser of the new unit broke again.
Every time that something has to be done it was a new technician fixing what the previous technician didn't fix or fix but it was still not working properly.
I also had a one year warranty, but every time I had to pay for some thing that was NOT PART of the warranty!!! Wonder
Search for a better company... don't let uniforms and big advertising fooll you.
I hope at least one person can read this and make a smart decision!!!

Maria A. I think you are confused. Mid-Florida Air Conditioning Inc. does not service the Gainesville area. They have an office in Debary and Melbourne. Maybe you used a company with a similar name because there are quite a few out there.

I do not work for Mid-Florida Air Conditioning Inc. I actually work for one of their competitors. I can tell you that Mid-Florida Air Conditioning is a family owned company that has been around for 30 years. Not this big corporate monster a couple people are trying to make it out to be. They do quality work and operate a fair and honest business.

If you did your homework you would realize they are one of the only companies in FL allowed to offer true warranties. They are regulated similar to insurance and it is a huge hassle and a lot of red tape. They have an A+ rating with The Better Business Bureau and always have as far as I know.

No one is perfect so I am sure they have made mistakes and will continue to do so. I will however gurantee that if something is their fault they will stand behind their work. A family owned company that has been around 30 years doesnt do that with scams. Mid Florida also is about the only company I know that does almost no advertising. I am not sure all the details but it sounds like your "buddy" is the one that scammed you. As an AC technician and licensed HVAC contractor you would know the acid wash he sold you on is one of the oldest scams in the book. You would never want to use acid on your coils.

My suggestion is stay with Mid-Florida Air Conditioning Inc. and if you have a problem call them up and tell them. I am sure they will stand behind their work like they always have.

I used Mid Florida since we moved into our house in 1995, for tune ups and general repair. My air conditioner unit broke just as the Florida heat returned. We called several places to get replacement estiments. Mid Florida Air came in with a decent price, but our finances were not in order. I called them at 8:00 am (Friday) to see if the unit could be repaired temporarily, to get us through at least a week or two. When I called, I told them exactly what was wrong with the unit (broken support for the fan motor) and told them the brand and age of the unit.

The person on the phone should have told me that it could not have been repaired or at least asked one of their Techs to call. Instead, the Tech come out at 5:30 pm, looked at it for five seconds and said he did not carry the repair part and it was not worth fixing.

I informed him that I would have to wait until I ordered a new unit from them on Monday. FIVE SECONDS of looking and he still charged me $89.95 for SERVICE FEE. Some Service... I called the rep that gave the quote for the new unit and told him about the outragious charge. He agreed but made no offer to either look into it or refund my money. Needless to say I canceled any further business with MID-FLORIDA AIR.

DO NOT CALL OR HAVE MID-FLORIDA AIR DO ANY WORK ON YOUR A/C SYSTEM, YOU WILL GET TAKEN!!

Mid-Florida Air is the only company I have ever used and I could not be happier. We experienced a similar situation with our unit going out at an inconvenient time. The company actually loaned us a room unit to keep us comfortable at no additional charge until they could do the repair. We also have the gold policy so there was no charge for them to come to our home to diagnose the problem. How are they supposed to know exactly what is wrong based on a what you say during a phone call? If you had the policy there would be no charge for them to come out and if you had a new system installed you get a discount. Sounds like you wanted something for free and you are mad at a company for trying to make money.

My Dad used Mid -Florida Air for many years and when his unit finally died, I called them and they put in a new one. Two years later the unit is making a rattling noise. I called Mid-Florida and they said it would cost $90 to come out and look at it. Well, my husband found out why it was rattling and fixed it. We decided to go ahead and buy the 1 year warranty instead like my dad always did.I called, and the lady told me that a tech would come out and give it a FREE inspection and then we could go ahead and purchase the warranty. Well, the tech came out and checked it out, then cleaned it, then took out the capacitor out and replaced it. He then told us that it will cost us $190.00! And that's not including the 1 year warranty which was $157.00, for a total of $347.00! What happened to the FREE inspection? And why did he replace a part and not tell us about it before he did it? So, we told him to take out that part and put the old one back in. That is no way to conduct business! You should always ask the customer first if they want that done. You don't just do it and then hit the customer with a huge bill! So, we told him we weren't paying for anything because we were told it would be a FREE inspection. We didn't buy the warranty either and I will never do business with them again. By the way, we went and purchased a capacitor for $21.00, (with a 5 year guarantee) watched a YouTube video and my husband put it in himself. So...what would've cost $347.00 only cost us $21.00. Stand up for your rights and don't be taken advantage of!